


Memories Faded by Time

by LillaMyy



Series: There's a Cause for Every Fate [5]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: M/M, Nostalgia, Stream of Consciousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-04-18 07:36:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4697678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LillaMyy/pseuds/LillaMyy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bilbo has returned from his adventure and learns to live in Bag End like a decent hobbit ought to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ray

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters except the ones I’ve made up, and I don’t claim that this ever happened. Neither do I get any monetary profit for writing this.
> 
> Notes: This was supposed to be my first attempt at proper Bagginshield but it turned out to be something else so it's really not what it should've been. Here either way is the year 2942 so Bilbo has recently returned to the Shire after his little adventure and is learning to live again his life in his little whole that is emptier than it should be. This took part to a drabble writing challenge elsewhere, so the names of each chapter come from the word list in that challenge.

The first rays of sunshine woke up Bilbo who was sleeping outside. He rubbed his eyes one last time and got up from the ground stretching his limbs. For some odd reason he still couldn’t sleep in his soft bed so he often slept outside. Perhaps it was because during his adventures he’d more often slept on hard branches than in anything soft, perhaps the lack of someone to sleep with, but whatever the cause Bilbo preferred to avoid his soft bed at least temporarily.

 

The hobbit snuck back into his hole before the neighbours woke up and notices him sleeping outside. After all he couldn’t say if they’d think he passed out on his lawn and that wouldn’t be appropriate at all. Bilbo wasn’t too bothered about what they said about him and his adventures in Hobbiton but he didn’t want to get a reputation as a drunkard either. Inside Bag End Bilbo found his way into his pantry that was still quite empty. He’d either retrieved most of his furniture or bought new ones, but filling up his pantry was still a work in progress for him. Certain dwarves had pillaged it a year ago without even asking for permission, so the hobbit had a huge task ahead of him in refilling it.

 

As the sun rose higher into the sky Bilbo sat by his desk and looked at a certain map. On the top of it was a single solitary peak above which someone had drawn a dragon. He recalled his adventures and the friends he’d made that he hadn’t seen in a long time.


	2. Lukewarm

Bilbo was roused from his thoughts in the middle of one particular adventure memory that still made his cheeks glow when something thumped. He noticed he’d accidentally dropped his map to the floor. Now that he’d woken back into reality Bilbo decided to go and get his tee. It had cooled off after sitting on the kitchen table for who knows how long but the hobbit still drank it. He was being lazy and didn’t feel like putting the kettle on again so he drank his lukewarm tee wincing.

 

When Bilbo had finished his tee Bilbo found his pipe among all the clutter in the hole and went to sit by the lawn to smoke. It somehow calmed him down every time when he could just sit in peace, and right now Bilbo needed peace.


	3. Dancing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Here canon can fly out the window because Rosies father’s (Tolman Cotton) mother is not named and I couldn’t find a hobbit name generator or anything so I stole from the appendices of LotR Dora Baggins to act as Rosie’s grandmother. P.S. I didn’t feel like thinking through what loop Dora and Bilbo are related, so I just use relation here. :D

The following day Bilbo was surprised to receive an invitation to Holman Cotton and his relation Dora Baggins’ wedding. Surprised because he didn’t know either of them very well and he had more or less become separated from “the proper folk” of Hobbiton after his adventure. Not on purpose but it had happened quite by chance as time passed by.

 

Bilbo watched from afar as the wedding folk danced out of joy and happiness and wondered how he would have wanted to feel that kind of joy. However, it was not meant for him because his reason for joy had been taken from him while the eagles soared above their heads. Bilbo tried to smile as Dora looked at him happily even though he felt like crying when he remembered Thorin’s last breath by his side.


	4. Sky

_Eagles were soaring high above the sky but Bilbo barely noticed them. He was too focused in the pain that was currently ripping his small heart into pieces. Thorin had kept the title of King under the Mountain just for a moment but still he looked just as royal lying next to Bilbo as he had looked like when stepping inside Bag End the first time. Back then Bilbo couldn’t have guessed how much the dwarf would eventually mean to him. Back then he hadn’t even thought of getting to know him! And now Bilbo was sitting by the dead body of Thorin tears stinging his eyes. They were flowing down his cheeks like rapid streams and there was no stopping them._

_Bilbo hadn’t known anything about the time. At some point he’d just realized that the battle was probably over because Gandalf came to sit beside him to dig out his pipe. Neither of them said anything. They just sat there. They sat there honouring the deceased King under the Mountain._

 

Bilbo woke up with a start and noticed he’d fallen asleep in his chair in his little hole. At first he wondered what on earth was tickling his cheek until he realized that a lonely tear had fallen to his cheek. He wiped it to his sleeve and went towards his bedroom and his bed. Maybe it was time for him to start sleeping there again. Maybe it would help him not falling asleep everywhere when sleeping outside brought the bad memories back up again.


	5. Raven

After a long time Bilbo was once again busy in his garden. He was planting the acorn he’d snatched from Beorn’s garden into the outskirts of his garden. One day it would grow into a magnificent tree. While he was busy a raven flew to sit on the fence surrounding Bag End. Bilbo stood his back to the bird so at first he didn’t notice it.

 

After a while the raven screeched loudly and Bilbo turned, startled. He stared at the mean looking bird for a while and almost shooed it away from his fence until he noticed a roll or parchment tied to his leg. Bilbo looked at the raven assessing and decided to risk taking the note from his leg.

 

The hobbit read the note and scribbled down a short reply. Then he tied the note back to the raven’s leg and it flew off.


	6. Red

In the note Balin had notified that he was on his way to the Blue Mountains by fall and had politely asked if Bilbo would be home to receive him. The hobbit had swiftly replied that he would make sure to stay home waiting for the dwarf because he was dying to get news from Erebor even though they did not include a particular dwarf anymore.

 

Weeks later Bilbo sat in the kitchen entertaining his guest. Balin’s red hood was hanging on the peg just like it had a year ago. Now, however, the red hood was the only hood hanging there unlike year ago when there had been thirteen hoods. In Bilbo’s view this was better than nothing but somehow the hole still seemed awfully quiet in comparison the what it was like a year ago. Balin told tales of Erebor and Bilbo listened to them greedily. The old dwarf didn’t say a word about Thorin, for which Bilbo was grateful even though he hadn’t said anything.

 

Several hours later two red-nosed comrades climbed both to their beds to wake up at dawn at least somewhat refreshed. However, Bilbo’s dreams were haunted by the Lonely Mountain.


	7. Choice

Years later Bilbo made a choice that would turn his, a certain young hobbit’s and (without the knowledge of either of them) the lives of everyone in Middle-earth completely around. That is he decided to take young Frodo Baggins to live with him at Bag End. Frodo had just lost both his parents in a boating accident.

 

Even Bilbo himself couldn’t quite say if his choice was made out of pity for the young hobbit or of selfishness and of hope to end his loneliness. But he did know that young Frodo would bring more life into the dark and empty hole even though even that most likely wouldn’t be the same as the chaos caused by thirteen dwarves.

 

As Frodo stepped inside Bag End for the first time as a resident Bilbo knew he’d made the right choice, whatever the reasons to it had been.


End file.
